If you want to test the responsiveness of servers to compare, you can use my ns_bench program to test the servers. The ping to a NS server is not a good indication of how fast the query responses will be for a nameserver.--Hello...is there anybody in there?

I have tested the Comcast DNS servers, Level 3 DNS servers, and OpenDNS DNS servers. The results seem to be slightly different each time I test them, so I have decided to show you the results of three different tests.

Comcast Test #1

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

68.87.75.194 10.05/13.24/22.52/4.71/0

68.87.64.146 19.02/20.51/22.10/1.17/0

Level 3 Test #1

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

4.2.2.1 18.15/19.34/22.88/2.05/1

4.2.2.2 15.35/20.30/36.00/7.87/0

OpenDNS Test #1

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

208.67.222.222 16.02/17.35/19.10/1.26/0

208.67.220.220 16.09/16.61/17.41/0.43/0

Comcast Test #2

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

68.87.75.194 9.05/11.14/14.69/2.00/0

68.87.64.146 18.59/19.87/21.59/0.98/0

Level 3 Test #2

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

4.2.2.1 17.16/23.52/35.42/7.80/0

4.2.2.2 17.13/19.74/28.57/4.43/0

OpenDNS Test #2

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

208.67.222.222 16.42/17.88/19.44/1.11/0

208.67.220.220 16.44/19.80/31.47/5.85/0

Comcast Test #3

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

68.87.75.194 9.61/11.54/14.74/1.94/0

68.87.64.146 18.63/19.81/21.04/0.97/0

Level 3 Test #3

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

4.2.2.1 17.62/21.03/24.19/2.64/1

4.2.2.2 15.58/16.67/18.47/0.96/0

OpenDNS Test #3

Nameserver Response Time (ms)

min/avg/max/stdev/retries

208.67.222.222 16.25/21.79/35.52/7.42/0

208.67.220.220 16.46/17.15/18.22/0.76/0

I have calculated the average response time of each DNS server test.

Comcast Average68.87.75.194 - 11.97 ms68.87.64.146 - 20.06 ms

Level 3 Average4.2.2.1 - 21.30 ms4.2.2.2 - 18.90 ms

OpenDNS Average208.67.222.222 - 19.01 ms208.67.220.220 - 17.85 ms

It seems that 68.87.75.194 is the fastest and 68.87.64.146 is the slowest. Can I make my computer only use 68.87.75.194, or do I need two DNS servers? If I need two DNS servers, can I use 68.87.75.194 and 208.67.220.220? Thank you!